


deserving

by dragonsoftheeast



Category: Iron Fist (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: F/M, Prompt Fill, i know this is late, ironfistweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 18:20:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18393809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsoftheeast/pseuds/dragonsoftheeast
Summary: Colleen knows Danny is meant to be the Iron Fist. But does he?For the-wingway for the Iron Fist Fanworks Exchange





	deserving

_ “You. You should take the Iron Fist.” _

 

She is still shaken by Danny’s declaration when she decides that he is ready for a final test.

Her? Colleen Wing with the  _ Iron Fist? _ It is something unfathomable, almost to the point of laughter. A teacher, a former employee of the Hand, the next holder of the Iron Fist.

Davos would have an aneurysm. If there was one person he would hate having the Fist more than his former brother, it was her. The Hand girl that stole his brother away from him, holding the Iron Fist, sacred weapon of K’un Lun. He would go mad with rage.

That alone made it almost tempting.

But she knows, to the very core of her being, that the Fist is not meant for her. More than that, she is not meant for the Fist. She is a teacher of children, as Bakuto once said. Only she doesn’t see it as a pejorative. She is a warrior, a protector of the innocent. But at her core, that is not her main calling. She enables people to fight for themselves.

She resolves to deny the Fist every time Danny offers it to her. 

She doesn’t blame him for his attempts to foist the Fist onto her. She knows it comes from a feeling of profound unworthiness, something that traces back to when they found the entrance to K’un Lun disappeared, dead monks littering the ground. It’s a feeling of failure that she knows well. It bound them, in the beginning. Now- she doesn’t know what does. All she knows is that they are bound, irrevocably so. She doesn’t think she could break it even if she wanted to.

Not that she wanted to.

But she has to make him see that he deserves to hold the Fist. That he was meant to hold it.

She can’t help but think that if he still had it, he could have healed himself when his leg was broken. He could have protected himself. She doesn’t doubt his skills in battle, but the memory is haunting. Danny lying on a hospital bed, an oxygen mask over his face.

How can she explain to him the fear of losing him?

She had lost him to her betrayal, once before. But that was her own fault. Losing him to himself would be a pain she can’t describe to him.

He is most himself with the Fist. He found a purpose in it. She has seen him become a better person just to prove himself worthy of it. She can’t take that away from him, even if he offers it to her.

So when she takes him to the old fighting cage, though she plans to fight her hardest, she plans to lose.

She unrolls the duct tape and tapes the strips of cloth to her body. She hands three strips to Danny. He’s too somber. She can see it on his face: he is determined to convince her that she deserves the Fist more than he does.

Unfortunately for him, she is equally determined.

He opens with a kick, which she dodges, and they exchange a quick series of blows. He ends up kicking kicking her in the stomach, and she releases an ungraceful grunt. 

When he rushes forward at a feint, she reaches out and, with a satisfying  _ rip _ , tears the cloth from his arm.

“If you keep falling to emotion you’ll never make the right choice.” She makes sure to inject the right amount of smugness that she knows will infuriate him. “One-zero.”

She opens with two kicks, which he blocks. He spins into a kick as she lands and she barely leans back enough to avoid it. 

Quick blows. Watch his arms. When he raises his right for a chop, she catches his bicep and grabs at the strip at his chest, spinning away.

“Two-zero.” She holds the cloth up triumphantly, tossing it away. “Come on, Danny. I thought K’un Lun taught you better than this. ”

“Think. Choose.” he is muttering to himself, his face screwing up in frustration. His impulsiveness has been the problem from the start. 

“You think Davos has this problem now that he has the Fist? Is that the Fist’s problem, or yours?” She saunters around in mock confidence, the kind she never uses around Danny, and hopes it’s convincing enough. He has always been able to see through her and she’s acting her ass off. 

His face screws up, and he’s about to lash out again. She knows what to target, but each word leaves a bad taste in her mouth. But she has to do this. Davos will say worse.

“I know what you’re doing to me.” He shakes his head, smoothing his furrowed brow. He points at her. “I’ve passed all of your tests so far. I’m taking the Fist back.”

That’s probably the best thing she’s heard all day. She tries not to let it show on her face. He can’t just win this fight, he has to understand that he should.

“And do what with it? Wreak havoc again? Break parleys? Be reckless as always?”

He rushes at her and they set into a quick exchange of blows and blocks until she manages to flip him. He gets to his feet and rushes her, unleashing another flurry of blows that she barely manages to block, and then he rips the strip off of her.”

He holds it up with a wolfish grin.

“Nice,” she admits, pushing herself to her feet. “But the way you got there, you need to progress past that. You can’t just blow up. That can hurt people.”

“How am I supposed to stay calm if you’re taunting me all the time?” He demands.

And it’s not just the talking. It’s who he’s fighting. Harold, Davos, now her. Danny is a loving man, and doesn’t really want to hurt the people he loves. That’s not a terrible weakness to have. But it is a weakness, one that Davos shamelessly exploits.

“I’m asking you to separate yourself from your emotions when you fight. Just fight to win.”

“It’s worked before.” It’s a feeble defense.

“Just because you succeed once doesn’t mean that you can do that every time. Don’t get too cocky.”

He forces his face to relax. He settles into his stance again.

He lets her come to him this time. She reaches out and he lets her overextend before locking her arm up, but she counters with an elbow towards the face and his grip loosens. 

She pulls herself free and pivots around him, ducking under another punch and-

He push-kicks her away from him, hard in the gut. She gasps for breath.

They poke at each other’s defenses for a moment.

She tilts her head cockily. “You gonna do anything?”

They exchange a quick series of blows, and he grabs it and pushes her three yards away in the same quick motion. 

She blinks. This was the kind of warrior she knows Danny can be.

He can see it on her face too.

“Two-two.”

She takes a quick breath and feels her shoulders sag.

“You love Davos. You loved Harold. You love me. I know fighting against someone you love is hard. It makes you doubt every step you take.”

He searches her face.

“And how do you get rid of that doubt?” He asks.

“You remember what you’re really fighting for.”

He nods, and there is half a breath before they charge again.

His technique has always been smooth, but it is fueled by a different fire this time. It is a blur of movement, and she is pushing herself to the limit trying to keep up.

She lands hard on her back, breathless, and Danny is holding her down. He’s holding the strip in his hand. It’s his choice now.

His eyes search her face. All she knows is that she has faith in him.

With a rip of fabric, he chooses the Fist for himself.

She can only smile.

* * *

 

“It feels good,” she admits to him, that night in their bed. She couldn’t bear to kick him out of it, even during their short stint as a student-teacher relationship. But it’s started to lose its warmth, and she doesn’t know which is worse.

“What?” he asks, brushing her hair from her face.

“Teaching.” They are both very tired, and flushed from the small victory, which is the only reason she doesn’t hold back. “I was worried that maybe...maybe it was tainted. That I was tainted by what I was taught.”

“Never,” he says. “You’re too good for that.”

“You’re the first student I’ve ever trained that wasn’t for the Hand, Danny,” she said, and she hadn’t realized how much that had scared her until now, when it was over. “I didn’t know what parts of it were me, what parts were the Hand-”

“Hey-” he says, and his hand cups her cheek, the familiar callouses rough against her face. “You are a great teacher. You are encouraging, and disciplined, and patient. I can’t thank you enough.”

“Bakuto was a great teacher,” she whispered. She reached up to hold his hand to her face. “He would look at and I would want to be better. He would look at me and I would want to be better. He would talk to me and I would know I could be great.”

“He wasn’t wrong about that,” Danny says, and it is so earnest that she can’t help but smile. How wonderful it is, to have such genuine faith put in her. Now that she had it, it was easy to see the cracks in her old sensei’s.

“I just thought that since Bakuto lied about so much, he lied about that. You know? Nothing made sense anymore.” She wipes away at a stubborn tear. “He would just exude something that made you believe in him. He would just make you feel so secure. Like we were invincible.”

It’s why Bakuto’s branch of the Hand, in her belief, was so much more dangerous than Madame Gao’s. Preying on those who had no power, giving them the illusion of it.

“I believed in him,” Colleen says, remembering her whole-hearted faith in her old sensei. Faith enough that she believed he would spare the Iron Fist on her behalf. “I loved him. I hate myself for falling for that, for believing in his lies.”

“He manipulated you. He had centuries of practice, that’s not your fault.”

“I taught kids to believe in the Hand,” she said. It comes in a wave of self-loathing that has been tamped down for two years. “I taught them to fight and die for a cause that was a lie.” 

She remembers their hollow eyes as they strapped her down, as they prepared to take her blood. She had taught them to fight because she believed that the Hand was empowering them, and she had seen the fruits of her labor.

“I led them down a road that led to their destruction,” she says, and she looks away from his understanding eyes. “Everything that I taught was a lie. How could I teach again? I didn’t know who I was without it. I didn’t know if there was anything that I could pass on that wasn’t tainted.”

He was waiting for her to speak now. He knew she had more to say.

“The Hand was my life. Fighting for it or against it. I just- now that it’s gone, I feel like I don’t have a purpose anymore. And I want to help people, and, and the center, it’s something I love doing. I used to think that was enough.”

“And what do you think now?” He asks, and all she can give him is the truth. It is no less than he deserves.

Surely Danny of all people would have recognized the Hand in her teachings. And he had never pointed any out to her. Exorcising the influence of the Hand in her life might take year. Perhaps she will never do it in full. But right now, she feels assured of her cleansing. 

“I want to teach again.”

Saying it out loud feels amazing. Teaching Danny has made her the most at ease she’s been in what seems like forever. And it’s oddly reassuring.

He sits up in bed, a wild grin stretching his face. “Really?”

She laughs. “I didn’t think you would be so happy about this.”

She sits up too. Her hair weeps back into her face and without thinking he pushes it behind her ear again.

“I saw you teaching me,” He says, “And at the beginning, it was uncomfortable.”

She begins to protest.

“You can say it, I was a jerk. I shouldn’t have demanded that you teach me. That was selfish of me.”

She can’t say that he’s wrong, but she understands, really. He had been near death and wanting to be useful. That’s why she agreed.

“But I saw you just grow...brighter again. Your smiles were happier. And not just because of your good-looking student.”

She pushes at his shoulder lazily and laughs.

“I think you were made to be a teacher, Colleen.”

Danny has always known her, even when he didn’t know all about her. Some parts of them just allow to see each other’s truth.

“I think I’m done being your sensei though,” she says. She just wants to get back to normal. “I don’t like the distance it put between us. I want us to be us again. Eat Chinese food. Watch old movies. Do dumb stuff like date night that inevitably draws into a street fight. You know what I mean?”

“You’re right. I think I’ve called you sensei for the last time.” Danny says, and that all-too-familiar guilt creeps into his voice. Their relationship has deteriorated during her tenure, and they both know it. He holds out his hand to shake. “Partners again?”

“I think I prefer calling you my boyfriend.” She takes the hand and pulls him into a kiss.

When she pulls back, he is blushing, and it would be hilarious if it also weren’t so cute.

“I think I prefer that too.”

She pulls him back into another kiss, and their bed starts to feel like home again.

* * *

 

When the dust has settled, the Fist is back where it belongs.

Colleen’s katana is sheathed on her back. She and Misty make a good team.

“Well, the arm’s broken, but nothing that can’t be replaced,” Misty says, holding up the dented remains of her prosthetic. She turns to Colleen. “Unless your boyfriend’s not offering.”

She laughs, but is too tired to make it anything past a wheeze. Combat takes more out of you than any physical sport in the world.

“Wouldn’t you rather have a car?”

Misty cocks her head. “Arm’s looking pretty good right now.”

They are watching Davos get wheeled away in an ambulance, and he is no longer struggling. The Fist, or whatever tainted version he had of it, is gone from him, and with it, his drive. 

Though Danny has learned to separate himself from his emotions in a fight, she can see his pain in the aftermath. 

They are talking. They call each other “brother,” but she thinks they can no longer say the words without malice. But she is an only child. Who knows?

Danny says something, and Davos’ head whips towards her.

She stares back with all the strength she can muster. Which turns out, is quite a bit. Misty stands with her, slinging her flesh arm around her shoulders.

He breaks before they do.

He snaps something, probably nasty. Danny looks serious instead of angry, though. He pauses before getting the last word, and then he walks away.

Davos is pushed into the ambulance. That’s that. It’s over.

She meets Danny halfway.

“Are you okay?” She asks. She reaches up to cup his face. His eyes flutter shut, there in the middle of the street.

“Yeah,” He says, and he kisses her palm. “Let’s go home.”

Last night, they had fought inside their home, and the brothers had destroyed it from the inside out in their duel. Davos had run, and they had pursued. She has no doubt it will be a mess. But it’s a mess she’s willing to sort through.

“Yeah,” she says. “Let’s go home.”

He slings his arm around her shoulder, and they walk away. They walk the streets of Chinatown and find their way home. 

Home. They look up into the shattered remains of the Chikara Dojo. The shattered windows. The door that blew off its hinges. The hole Danny punched into the side of the second story. Their apartment. Their bed. It will take forever to fix.

Danny stops on the threshold, so abruptly that she almost trips. He reaches out, lightning-quick, and rights her.

“Colleen.”

“What?” 

He turns to face her, a shy smile on his face.

She remembers kissing here two years ago, leaning up against this door before they’d been attacked by the ATC. But now there is no door, only Danny, just standing there.

“Davos-” He struggles to get the words out, and then he starts over again.. “I’ve told you before that I’ve been looking for a family for a very long time. I tried to find it in the Meachums, in Davos again. And I told you before that you’re something new. But I don’t think that’s true anymore.”

Her heart is pounding in her chest, and she doesn’t know why.

“You’re my family now. And I just want to make that official-”

She throws her arms around him before he can finish.

“You didn’t let me finish.” He said into her hair.

“Sorry.” But she didn’t let go. “Go ahead.”

“Marry me?”

She can imagine his dumb smile, and nods into his shoulder.

“That’s a relief.”

“Alright, let’s check out how smashed up the place is.”

“You don’t want a ring or anything?”

Colleen can imagine the problems that a ring would bring to being a sword-wielder. But she likes the romance of it.

“Soon,” she says. “But not now.”

Now, they will rebuild.

**Author's Note:**

> So the three prompts were:  
> 1) maybe something post-defenders where colleen gets a chance to talk about everything that happened with bakuto with danny because that should've been in the show.  
> 2) i will take any sort of ironwing proposal/engagement/anything like that i love it  
> 3) hm their cage fight in s2 except danny "wins" the fight and doesn't tell colleen she should take the iron fist, instead they start to repair their relationship after that 
> 
> Hopefully I connected them pretty well. I kinda want to make a followup where they explore Colleen's connections to the Iron Fist, let me know if that's something you guys want to see!


End file.
